In San Francisco, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto told reporters this week that he had only received roughly four applications for concealed carry permits over the past decade. But at the moment, his office is processing dozens and he predicts that the number will be “in the hundreds” by the end of the year. The New York Sun spoke to one applicant named Benjamin Zheng, who recently received his permit. His decision was driven by the “alarming” conditions on the block where he lives. Drug dealers are openly doing business near his home and it’s no longer safe to walk the streets in his neighborhood.

After receiving only a handful of applications for permits to carry a concealed weapon in the past decade, the city of San Francisco is being flooded with them as property crime skyrockets. Last week, the first of those applications was finally approved.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last year in the Bruen case, which made it easier for gun owners to get concealed carry permits, it is now much easier for residents of San Francisco to obtain a license to carry weapons in public. That right may be short-lived, however, as the state moves to rewrite gun laws to comply with the court’s ruling.

Last week, Benjamin Zheng — an automobile shop employee — had his application approved by the San Francisco sheriff’s department. Mr. Zheng works in the Tenderloin neighborhood, which the New York Times has called “the dirtiest block in San Francisco” due to the frequency of open drug use.

The Sun is quick to point out that violent crime isn’t the biggest driver of the issues Mr. Zheng is facing. San Francisco’s violent crime rate is actually lower than that of Chicago or Denver. (Which really isn’t saying much these days.) But property crime is disproportionately out of control there when compared to other cities of comparable size.

In 2022, robbery and theft were up by more than 40% and burglaries were 67% higher. And the city’s endemic problems with homeless camps and open-air drug markets compound the issue. Whenever you see large numbers of homeless people and drug addicts congregating, crime follows. But in San Francisco’s “liberal paradise” model, police are prevented from doing much about it.

This leaves the law-abiding with few choices. More and more of them are looking at the possibility of gun ownership as a means of self-defense following the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs Bruen. Up until recently, San Francisco had followed the example of New York City in demanding that applicants show a “good cause” as to why they had a need for a permit.

Of course, this window of opportunity to receive a carry permit may not last for long. As was also seen in New York, the Calfiornia state legislature is already working on a bill that would try to blunt the Supreme Court’s decision and once again make it harder to qualify for a permit. They are also looking at vastly expanding “gun-free zones” where you won’t be allowed to legally carry even if you manage to obtain a permit.

At some point, law-abiding residents of the Golden State are going to need to take the hint. Your state government does not care about your safety or your needs unless you are in a preferred demographic class, including homeless migrants and drug addicts. If you wind up getting mugged, carjacked or worse, that’s not really a priority for them. Perhaps you should consider moving to someplace where things are handled differently.